


The Oracle's Eye

by idiosyncrasiesofme



Category: Banana Bus Squad, The Misfits (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Dungeons & Dragons, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Magic, And a flirt, Fae & Fairies, Flirting, M/M, Magic, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Slow Burn, Strangers to Lovers, john is a bard, smii7y is a sorcerer
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-22
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:00:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 21,778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24315442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idiosyncrasiesofme/pseuds/idiosyncrasiesofme
Summary: His eyes open and he sees a void, only blackness, and emptiness. But in the emptiness, there was a ball of light and electricity, sparks flying off of it at random. The light was a mix of color, red and blue, with the sparks coming off in purple.Smiity felt compelled to go to the light like something was pulling his heart to it. His feet started to move, even with the lack of a floor, without a second thought. He was moving speedily through the void, getting closer and closer to the ball of electricity. Now he could see that it was much bigger than he originally thought, towering over him and reaching higher than an orc. He made his way over to it with an arm outstretched to touch it. And soon he was just barely close enough, he could feel the sparks nearly shock him, wisping the hair on his arm and filling him with a cooling sensation.
Relationships: Cam | GoodGuyFitz/SwaggerSouls, John | KryozGaming/SMii7Y, Luke Patterson/Ryan | Ohmwrecker, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added
Comments: 8
Kudos: 28





	1. The Story Begins

**Author's Note:**

> this took so long, and it's become a whole story on its own and now i think of it as my baby. i really hope this does well because I'm so excited to see how it unfolds in the future.

One who lives in the city of Totumm knows that the Forest of Malute is not the place to be, especially not alone.

  
All the children tell stories about how the Mediocrisilvam, the forest thieves, will take you and roast you over an open fire, burning you alive, and that they would do this for fun. The adults would let them say these things, so long as it meant they would stay away from the trees, out of fear of what lurks beyond them.

  
When a new person comes to town, they are reminded time and time again that the forest is a force to be reckoned with. They are told the stories of how if you go in, you will more than likely never come out. How the Mediocrisilvam will rob you, and most likely kill you, or worse. They've lived their lives in the trees and the woods, grown-up learning their ways through the confusing and harsh environment.

  
Smiity was no different from the other newcomers, he was an outsider that had been welcomed and warned, but his journey depended on the forest and its contents. More specifically a certain yellow flower that he needed for a potion that would, potentially, help him focus on his learning how to control his powers and different incantations and spells. His mentor told him that getting his hands dirty could help him in the long run and sent him off to find the forest without any warning of the dangers that lurk inside.

  
So that's what led him here, at the town's most popular tavern, with a solemn face and one thought on his mind. That thought being: how he can make it through the forest without proper training or any knowledge of the terrain or the people? With a drink in hand, he sat for nearly an hour, thinking and listening to the person that was performing a song that sounded like an old forgotten tale that is mad for being lost.

  
He looked up to look at the bard who he found was already looking at him with a curious gaze as he strummed his lute, not missing a note. There was a frown on his lips, a visible mole sat right above his upper-left lip. He was wearing a leather jacket that fit him way too well to be legal and matching leather pants to go with it. Smiity looked away quickly, staring back at his drink.  
When he finished his first and only drink for the night, he stood up and paid his tab, thanking the bartender as he made his way out of the establishment, not looking back to the bard who was still singing and playing his songs.

  
He walked over to his inn where he was staying for the next few days, planning how he would find what he needed.

  
He decided that night was probably the worst time for him to go exploring the trees and ended up going to sleep so he could wake up early and get a head start on his adventure.  
The next morning he devised a plan, first, he would get something to enchant using a protection spell, then he would grab some bread from a bakery before heading out to the forest where he would get the flower.

  
Once he was ready and had his money, he went off into the town's main market place, looking for someone or someplace where he could get something to cast a protection spell on, a type of accessory that's small enough that it won't bother him while he traveled.

  
While looking he saw many different places, such as a smith who was currently hammering out something that had just been pulled out of the fire. He might have to keep him in mind later if he needed something to be made. He passed a library that had a tree that had grown through the building, or maybe it was built around the tree. Either way, it was beautiful.

  
There was someone in the tree with a book in his hand, the tree holding a stack of books beside him, his eyes glowing a bright green, no doubt a druid. There was a sparring house, with two tieflings fighting and someone else standing by, watching the two, sometimes saying something to the others. The person that was watching them had a mask on, it seemed to resemble some type of owl. He could hear one of the tieflings laugh, the sound was loud and insane.

  
He made his way through the town, looking for an antique shop of some sort. He would be lucky if there was even just a small merchant stall with accessories of that sort, and he just so happened to find a store that was of antiques and breakables.

  
When he stepped in he looked around, while the shop had many old objects and fragile-looking pieces, it seemed comfy and well-loved. You would have thought an old couple ran the store. So it was a shock when a young-looking elf walked out of the back with a smile on his face, though his eyes were hidden by a gray mask that had a symbol on it that wasn't anything Smiity had seen. Once his eyes, if Smiity was to guess, landed on the while-haired male, his eyebrows raised though his smile didn't drop.

  
"Hello, welcome to Ohm’s, what can I get for you today?" The man, presumably Ohm, says with a calming voice.

  
"Uh, I need a ring or a necklace that I can put a protection spell on," He nods as Smiity speaks.

  
"I'm sure I can find you something like that, let me take a look." He walks around the counter to a place further back in the store. Smiity follows him as they walk through the isles of fragile furniture and other household items until they get to a smaller display of wearable accessories. The man in front of Smiity pulled out a key and unlocked the glass case and moved out of the way for him to look through. The young elf started to peruse the options, not looking for a specific craft or anything, though Ohm hadn't moved, probably to make sure Smiity didn't steal, though, could he see through the cloth covering his eyes. The question was bothering Smiity.

  
"I'm sorry if this sounds rude, but can you see through that mask you're wearing?" He paused in his looking to glance at the man next to him who harbored a warm smile.

"That's a silly question, I think I should be asking you why you need to cast a protection spell in this safe town? You're not planning to go anywhere are you?" He raised an eyebrow at Smiity, voice sounding like he knew something.

  
"What? No I- you can never be too careful and I'm leaving for home in a few days so I thought that maybe this would help my journey." He nods at the lie that easily slipped from Smiity's mouth.

  
"Good, there are some dangerous people outside of the town, especially in the forest, so I would be careful and only travel during the day," Smiity nodded, forgetting that the man might not be able to see, but before he could voice his thanks, Ohm had turned away and made his way back to the front counter. Smiity just looked at him for a moment with a raised eyebrow before he looked back at the case of accessories to look for something that he could enchant properly.

  
He pulls out a few bracelets and rings, most of them being too big for his thin stature, and some necklaces that had large gems at the center, but none of them felt exactly like what he was looking for, none of them reached out to him per se.

  
That was until he pulled out a necklace that had a silver chain leading to a deep, midnight like-colored gem that was dangling in the center, surrounded by a crescent moon. Though the moon was quite small, it seemed to have something carved into it, some ancient text or language. It seemed as though if you looked long enough at the gem, you could see different scenes being laid out for your mind.

  
Smiity decided that this is what he was going to use, it's what he needed. So he started to put everything back into its place in the glass case before walking back the front of the store where Ohm hadn't moved, or maybe he had, Smiity wasn't paying attention and he wasn't sure how long he had been staring at the necklace, but Ohm was still smiling at him, that is until he saw the necklace that the white-haired elf was carrying, though it didn't drop, only slightly falter.

  
"Ah, The Oracles Eye, I forgot I had that on display."

  
"This necklace has a name?" Smiity asked, looking back down to the item he held in his hand.

  
"Yes, long ago that necklace was said to belong to one of the strongest oracles to ever walk the land, travelers would come from far and wide to hear from her, to hear what she saw. This necklace was said to be like a holder of her magic, she wore it while alive and when she knew her time was up, she put her magic into this necklace for the next oracle to take on her mantle. It is said to give whoever owns it 'prophetic capabilities' though no one has inherited all the magic that was stored away, even after a millennium has passed, most of that is mostly just myth and legend. Though it is a good conversation starter, wouldn't you agree?" Ohm told the tale like he had done so a million times in the past, with the voice of a man who had seen the effects of the necklace but had craved for so much more, and Smiity listened with wide eyes, loving the story and the history.

  
"Well, who's to say it's not just a legend or myth? For all, we know it could be true, every word of it, and there could still be someone out there who's going to become the next great oracle." Smiity was hanging off every word said by the other elf, hope in his eyes.

  
"That's a nice thought, but the necklace was probably just enchanted by a wizard who also made up the story, sorry to disappoint you, kid." He turned to walk to a small box, though it didn't look like there was any way of opening the box. That is until Ohm said something along the lines of "Patintibis" when a glowing green line appeared around the perimeter of the box at the 1/3 point. Once the light disappeared, Ohm uttered the phrase "Vitas" which lifted the top of the box, revealing a pouch of what could only be money and what looked to be a ring and letter of some sort.

  
So he's a wizard.

  
"How will you be paying?" Ohm looked back at the young magic wielder and smiled.

  
"Huh? Oh right, I forgot about that." Smiity walked over to where Ohm was standing and pulled out his own bag of gold, silver, and electrum coins. "How much would you take in gold?"

  
"This costs more than gold, you know, I'm going to need to bind the necklace to you, luckily it won't take too long, I just need you to put out your hand with the necklace in it." Smiity did as he was told and Ohm started to mumble words that he couldn't understand. Not a second later did Smiity start to feel something burning his hand, he tried to close it but something kept in open, he couldn't move for about 7 seconds, then he couldn't feel the burning anymore. He looked at Ohm, slight fear in his eyes.

  
"What did you do?" He asked, wanting to drop the necklace and walk away from the store entirely, but he found he couldn't.

  
"I merely bonded you to the necklace, I'm not sure what it was like on your end," He spoke so nonchalantly about it like this was a common occurrence, "And I also had to take a quick look into your mind to make sure you have no ill intent when using this powerful object," Smiity was about to say something about how it was rude and very intrusive of him to go snooping around in someone else's mind without consent when Ohm gently took his hands. "Don't worry Smiity, I just looked around for anything about the necklace, nothing more."

  
Though a weight had been lifted off his shoulders, he still felt off about having someone look through his head without permission, he brushed off the whole "knowing-his-name" thing seen as this man had just sifted through a good chunk of that day's memories.

  
"But, with that being said, I'm still gonna need physical payment for the necklace." Ohm's voice said pity but his face said I need the money. So Smiity pulled out 8 gold coins, placing them on the counter and closing up the pouch he was holding, placing it back on his belt.

  
"Thank you for helping me today," Smiity said as the older man in front of him presumably stared at the pile of coins on the counter.

  
"No, thank you, you're very generous, and remember that you're always welcomed back here, that is, if you plan on staying longer than you originally thought." Ohm gathered the coins and placed them into his own pouch, closing the lid of the box and saying a few words when the same light from before sealed the box once again. Smiity turned with a confused smile on his face and walked out of the building, looking around to see if there were any bakeries around where he could get some bread, after all, he needed to be prepared for anything in the forest.

  
He walked through the town again, passing most of the same places, seeing the same tieflings sparring and the same druid reading, though there was a new person in the smith shop who was just standing over the first person, watching him work. The man was big, definitely over 7 feet, but his back was facing towards Smiity so he couldn't tell what the man looked like.

  
He kept looking for a few minutes, before coming across a bakery stall that was mostly vacant save for a bored-looking person behind the counter and someone standing on the other side of the counter with a half-eaten cake on the table in front of him. Smiity walks up to the counter, the man who was just looking like he'd rather be anywhere else now perked up and was smiling at the elf who had just walked up to the stall.

  
"Hello Sir, how may I help you today?" He asked, trying his best to seem happy and not tired, adjusting the glasses that sat on the bridge of his nose.

  
"I just need a loaf of bread, and I'd like it wrapped, please." Smiity smiles at the person who nods and turns his back to the two people, opening up an oven with loaves of bread sitting there, presumably to keep their warmth. He turned around to watch as people walked by the stall, it was around midday so most of the townspeople were probably working or doing things so he didn't see many people.

  
His eyes slowly made their way to the person standing next to him. He studied his appearance. Though he was leaning over the countertop, he was clearly taller than Smiity, most likely over 6 feet. His hood hid his face from the man next to him so it was hard to see who or what this person was, though he had a lute strapped to his back, above the cloak he was wearing. There were a few intricate designs along the body of the lute, though they seemed simplistic, it still was beautiful. Now that Smiity was looking, he realized that the lute was identical to the one the bard from the tavern from the previous night had.

  
"Are you gonna keep staring at me, or are you gonna get your bread?" The hooded person says, his head turning to look at Smiity, whose face was filled with shock and embarrassment, he didn't know that the other man knew he was looking. When he turned and pulled his hood down, the white-haired elf could see that yes, this was the same man he saw performing the night prior. He wore the same leather jacket that he had seen on him the night before, under the cloak, fitting his arms very nicely and showing off his broad shoulders. He also had on a white low-cut tunic underneath the jacket and a pair of black pants, some brown boots pulling the whole look together.

  
His eyes were a color that Smiity couldn’t discern for the life of him and he has a smile on his face, much different from the frown that graced his lips just a few hours prior. His long brown hair fell at his chin and looked like an untamed lion mane.

  
"I'm sorry, I was just admiring your lute, it's very beautiful," Smiity said with a nervous smile, looking back to where the worker held his now wrapped bread, smiling. He pulled out 5 silver coins to give to the baker.

  
"My lute eh? You want me to give you a private concert sometime?" The man next to him smirked, fully turning to look at the white-haired elf beside him. His eyebrow was raised in a suggestive manner and his head was resting on his palm. Smiity's face flushed at what the man was implicating and he started stuttering out a response when the worker stepped in.

  
"John, you're scaring the new guy, take it easy, he probably hasn't been here more than a day." Smiity thanked whatever deity saved him the embarrassment of having to respond to the bard next to him.

  
"Come on, Craig, you're no fun, I was just joking anyway." The person, John, a wide smile on his face as he rolled his eyes playfully. "You're always such a cockblock, let me live," The worker, Craig, just rolled his eyes at the man who was taking a bite out of the cake he had.

  
"Don't mind him, he's always a prick, have a nice day." Smiity nods and waves at Craig as he leaves the stall, noticing how John turns to watch him head off in the direction of his inn.

  
Once at the inn, Smiity takes off his belt and places the rest of his things on the bed. He pulls on a mahogany-colored vest that he had laid out before entering the market, buttoning up the middle part and pulling out his midnight blue cloak that covered his arms and shoulders when wearing it and had a hood, there was a clip that held the two sides together when it was worn so that it wouldn't fall off the wearer's body. Before he put the cloak on, he grabbed the belt again, taking off the coin pouch and hiding it under the pillow on his bed along with some other things he wouldn't need while in the forest. He only kept a small bag that held the Oracles Eye, an empty pouch for the flowers, a dagger on his left hip in case his magic failed him, and a bag that sat on his opposite hip for the bread.

  
Before he put the cloak on to head out, he pulled out the Oracles Eye and placed it on the ground in front of him, sitting down like he was about to pray. He closed his eyes and focused on the accessory in front of him, reciting a spell he knew by heart, starting to feel energy and power in his fingertips. He opens his eyes to see the familiar glowing red and blue lights that encircled his hands, one color for each hand. He focused on the feeling of safety and comfort. He envisioned walking through the forest without anything happening to him and making it out fine with the flowers so that he could go back home and make the potion that his teacher told him about.

  
The pendant started to glow a light purple color, like usual, but then it stopped. Smiity just looked at the necklace for a second before trying again to finish the spell but the same thing would happen every time. He got fed up and tried one more time. He was able to finish citing the whole spell but the necklace only glowed for a moment before the light started to move in towards the gem, seemingly entering it and stirring around for a beat before it shot itself out towards Smiity. He wasn't able to move out of the way in time, thus getting hit with his own spell in his chest.

  
He waited.

Nothing happened.

  
He looked down at the necklace, defeated and ready to just not take it with him altogether, but something in his mind told him to bring it, maybe even wear it. So he placed it back in his small bag and stood up.

  
"Well, that might not have worked, but I still have to go into the forest, maybe I shouldn't have gotten a magic necklace instead of a normal one," Smiity said to himself. He sighed before grabbing his cloak that he had set on the bed, putting it on and clipping it in the front. He looked around the room to see if he had forgotten anything. He couldn't see anything so he walked to his door, heading back out to the streets of Totumm, this time heading toward the outskirts of the town. He was constantly checking to make sure no one was following him, though he's sure no one would be paying him any attention, you could never be too sure.

  
Once he felt he had made it far enough away from the main town, he started to head towards the forest. Putting up his hood as he walked down the end of the dirt path that led back to the town, he looked behind him one more time, looking back at the town that he had only known for a day, but he somehow felt like he wanted to know more about it and the people in it, learn everyone's names and stories, maybe even stay there for longer than a few days. He shakes his head to dislodge the thoughts as he turns back to the forest in front of him.

  
He takes a deep breath in, making his way into the woods. As he passes the trees, it starts to get darker and darker, and Smiity wonders for a brief moment how he'll see, but then he remembers that he can do magic. So, he lifts his left hand and summons a flame that hovers over his palm where a red glowing circle could also be seen, the small flame lights up the surrounding area, letting the white-haired elf navigate through the forest more easily.

  
He walked around for about 15 minutes, heading deeper and deeper into the woods that seemed silent, almost serene.

  
He thinks back to what his mentor told him before he set off on his journey, how to find the flowers when he got to the forest. He recalled how he was told that the way to find the flower was to look for any openings in the treetops or clearings that let in light for the flower to soak in. He realized that maybe there were a few of these plants at the entrance to the forest and all of this preparation was for nothing, maybe he could just turn around and walk right out of the trees and he'll spot a patch of these flowers right where he just was a few minutes ago.

  
But as he started to turn to leave, he noticed a patch of grass that made him freeze. It was completely even and green, not a single spot of brown in it to be seen, the only other color that could be seen was the coloring on mushrooms that were growing from the ground. This, normally, wouldn't be a frightening occurrence, or a weird one at that, but the thing that made the elf freeze in place was how the mushrooms curved into a circle surrounding the entire grass area, informing him of one thing.

  
The "Mediocrisilvam" were not in fact "forest thieves", but were more on the lines of "faeries".

  
Right after he realized this, he turned fully to start heading back the way he came, suddenly more scared of the forest than before and now having a better reason to get out and away from that place, as far as he can go.

  
He wanted no association with the fae, he's heard the stories of people working with hem, trusting them, and inevitably going insane because of it, or how they take you and torture you or feed you to their children. He had also heard of the curses that have been placed on families, generations of people that messed with the fae. All of that was something he did not want to experience. So you can understand his state of mind when he heard a loud and scratchy cackle coming from behind him, followed by a chorus of about 3 other laughs, all different pitches, sounds, and strengths.

  
Let's just say that, due to his hand still technically being on fire, he nearly burnt the entire forest down.

  
He started spinning around, holding his hand in front of him so he could see more clearly in the dark forest. He wasn't able to see anything at first, Only seeing the same logs and trees, and horrifying mushroom circle. He heard the laughter die down, but that did nothing to ease his anxiety, it seemed that it only doused the flame with gasoline, causing him to feel even less safe in the environment. He felt something behind him, the presence of some sort of creature.

  
Slowly, he turned to face the ominous feeling being that was no doubt behind him. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see two glowing yellow eyes with red slits for pupils, he froze, not wanting to turn fully and reveal the creature next to him. The figure started to move, walking in front of the petrified elf with a sadistic looking smirk on their face.

  
He knows how faeries tend to be humanesque in their features, but also adapted to the land that they inhabit, these faeries that live in the forest had sunken eyes and their teeth were sharp, they most definitely could see Smiity before he could see them. With the light of the fire coming from his hand, he could see that they had on clothes much like that of an elf, decorated and elegant, yet practical for when you're doing something that might require a lot of movement.

  
"Would you look at that, an idiot, take a look at this fool, why don't you?" They said to someone, presumably the other fae that had surrounded the scared elf. Smiity could tell he was male by his deep voice.

  
The faery, though smaller than Smiity by about 3 inches, looked like he could do some damage without breaking a sweat or without any magic. It made the white-haired elf shiver at the hungry look he was being given. Another laugh made Smiity's head snap in the other direction, only to come face to face with a venomous and hungry smile, so close that he could feel the hot breath on his face.

  
Smiity staggers back only to be met with the body of the other faery behind him and arms grab his shoulders holding him in place.

  
"Yeah, didn't your mommy ever tell you that 'the forest is dangerous'?" The new faery used air quotes, using an overexaggerated voice, filled with faked concern. Smiity didn't respond. This new faery had similar eyes, though with a more orange hue and was taller than the other one. Her voice was higher and more feminine, and she had softer facial features, though still terrifying.  
"What are we gonna do with him?" A third voice asked. The white-haired elf didn't want to look at the new faery that had just spoken up, so he didn't.

  
"I think we could have some fun with him first, he's a cute one, after all~," The male behind him said right next to his ear. The way he said it made Smiity scared for yet another reason, prompting him to use the hand that was holding the fire to curl up in a fist, surrounding his hand in the flame. He raised his hand to strike the faery in front of him, using what strength he had available to push forward and land a hit on the female's jaw. He then drove his arm back allowing his elbow to hit the faery behind him before his hand shot up to deliver a punch to his face.  
The shock and pain from the hits made the faery stumble back holding his nose, letting go of his grip on the elf, who took the opportunity to bolt away from the group and towards where he believes to be the exit, but before he could get far another faery lands in front of him, which makes Smiity remember that they have wings, wielding a spear. It's one of the faeries that he didn't see before. They have an annoyed sneer on their face, staring the elf down as he thinks over what he could do.

  
The faery in front of him starts to charge him, to which Smiity puts his hands in front of him, his left crossing over his right, purple glowing circles form in front of his palms, the faery tries to attack him but a purple shield blocks the spear, and it knocks the faery off of their feet. He hears a twig snap from behind him and he turns to see the female faery from earlier with a burn mark on the left side of her face and a furious look in her eyes. Her hand is holding a knife now and she lunges at the elf. Smiity is able to get his arms up to block the faerie's attack, though not with his shield. The knife is just barely held away from Smiity's eyes, his arms in an x-shape, holding the female's arms in place.

  
She pulls her knife away from his face, letting him sigh in relief, though that was a short-lived luxury because the faery dropped down and swiped Smiity's legs out from underneath him with her own legs.

  
Smiity, now on the ground, looked up at the female who tripped him and rolled to the left to avoid an attack, the knife hitting the dirt right where he had been laying not 5 seconds before. She goes to make a move again but before the knife hits Smiity’s uncovered shoulder, a bright blue and red swirled light expands outward from the elf’s center, creating a sphere of the two colors that surrounds his body. The sphere acts as a shield and knocks his attacker back a few feet. His eyes are shut tight and only open after a few seconds when nothing happens. He can see through the red and blue shield how the faery is now on the ground with her knife several feet away from her body.

  
Smiity is shocked to be safe from danger and the shield falls though he’s still on the ground. The other faeries used this to their advantage, one of them sneaking up behind him and using a branch to knock him onto his side while the faery that was hit with the shield’s knife was pushed across the floor to her, allowing her to quickly stand and shove the elf onto his back before straddling him and pressing her knife to his throat while her free hand pinned one of his hands to the ground with a grimace, her face dirtied from the ground.

  
"Fuckin bitch, don't even think about moving, I won't hesitate to slit your throat. Bayard, what are we going to do with him, he had sorcerer magic." The faery on top of him said.

  
"Sorcerer? How are you sure?" The faery from before, Bayard, said walking up to where the two were on the ground, rubbing his nose which was red and looked burnt.

  
"The circles around his hands. Those were old-elvish words, I’d say dating back millennia." The female says, pressing the knife further into the elf's neck, drawing some blood. The feeling of the knife stung a bit and as the sharp edge digs into his skin and a single drop of blood drips down and stains the white shirt that he had on under his vest. Smiity tries to raise his free hand when suddenly a fourth faery that he hadn’t seen steps on his wrist and pins it to the scratchy and uncomfortable ground. “And also did you not see that shield? He holds some type of old magic in him.”

  
“Millennia? You sure?” Bayard asks.

  
“Bayard I think Sylvia is right, his eyes were red and blue after the shield fell.” The faery holding his wrist down spoke up, agreeing with the female, Sylvia. It confuses me because I’ve never seen my eyes glow different colors, and no one ever mentioned anything about old magic when I was practicing back home, and that shield was nothing like he had ever seen in the past.

  
“I think we’ve come across a much bigger catch than we thought,” Bayard says with a smile. Suddenly all the faeries look up to a certain place in the treetops, Smiity’s eyes following theirs to see...nothing. Well, he sees nothing, but then he hears a sound coming from higher up in the trees, it’s soft and but definitely there. The three faeries that didn’t have their hands occupied pull out weapons and get into a fighting stance. The sound starts to get louder and now Smiity can tell that it’s a lute. A lute that was playing a very soothing tune, despite the situation.

  
“Whoever you are, show yourself!” The faery with the spear shouted into the darkness, drawing a light chuckle from the person playing whose music kept getting louder, though the direction of where the music was coming from became harder and harder to tell making the faeries surround the small elf on the ground who was still trying to pull his throat away from the sharp knife cutting into his skin.

  
Soon a voice filled the air, enveloping Smiity in a sense of calmness. It sounded like how you would describe the most beautiful sunset after being trapped inside for weeks on end due to a storm, the air warm and humid, feeling like you were being hugged from all sides as the sky changes color, fading from a vibrant red to a deep blue. The temperature would noticeably drop but it would still be a comfortable mix of hot and cold. Smiity could almost see the light from the sun, even in the dark woods.

  
Smiity blinks with a smile on his face, trying to see if he was actually seeing the sun or if it was just a hallucination. He snaps out of his trance when he sees two blue lights with yellow accents moving up and down and side to side in time with the music. He looked up at the owner of the lights only to see John from the bar and the bakery stall, he was playing a song that Smiity couldn’t recognize, his eyes were closed, his hands were where the light was coming from.

  
John must’ve felt his eyes because he opened his eyes and Smiity could see then glowing a soft blue color coming from them. The man winks at Smiity which makes him blush yet again and look away. Once he does look away though, he notices how the pressures on his neck and wrist were practically gone and the body on top of him was limp on the ground next to him. How did he miss that?

  
Smiity slowly stands up and brushes himself off when a hand places itself on his shoulder. He nearly shrieks until he turns around and sees a familiar mask covering eyes that seem to stare into his even though he can’t see the other man’s eyes. Ohm has a finger pressed to his lips, telling the white-haired boy to be quiet, before he turned and started to walk away, gesturing for Smiity to follow.

  
“John should be able to charm them for long enough to let us get out of here, but we have to hurry,” Ohm says in a hushed voice, but Smiity stops making the other elf turn around. “What are you doing?”

  
“We can’t just leave him there,” The sorcerer points behind himself.

  
“Leave who where?” A new voice joins the conversation and Smiity turns to face none other than John with his lute strapped to his back.

  
“John! You should be charming them still!” Ohm says and John’s hand reaches behind his head to scratch his neck.

  
“Yeah, about that…” He trailed off and they suddenly heard a loud scream of ‘mother fucker’ ring through the nearby forest. “That main guy was stronger than I thought, so we should probably run now.” There isn’t even any time to react before all three of them are booking it to where the entrance of the forest is.

  
“Properio!” Ohm shouts as everyone is running and soon Smiity can feel his feet start to move faster, though he isn’t expending any more energy than he was before. Soon he sees the forest opening, the light flowing through the shorter trees easier and lighting the way for the three.

  
A noise is heard from behind them and Smiity turns to look at what it was, seeing Bayard hot on their tail with his eyes now glowing red. He must be angry. He turned forward again and pushed himself towards the light faster. He hears a cry of pain and turns to see Ohm on the floor about 30 feet away from him and John with a knife in the back of his thigh. He tries to run to him to help but John pulls him away, his eyes looking like this has happened before. Smiity just looks at him confused before John just nods back to the scene in front of them where Bayard was getting closer and closer to the helpless wizard, but before he could get within 5 feet of him, an arrow cuts through the air, breezing over Smiity’s shoulder, and landing right in the middle of the faery’s chest. He just stares at the arrow that was buried deep in the faery as he falls to the ground before he turns around to see where it came from.

  
He’s barely able to see whoever shot the arrow when someone is rushing over to where Ohm is lying on the ground in pain, He was able to make out the red skin color and a large tail that no doubt belonged to a tiefling. The person crouched down beside Ohm and held his hand out, pulling up the elf from the ground and lifting his arm around his shoulder, helping him walk out of the forest.

  
Once all four of them were out of the trees, Smiity finally took a good look at the newcomer. He had thick horns that resemble that of a ram’s growing from the top of his head, that mixed with his red skin and the X that covered his left eye made him look like how someone would describe a demon. It was slightly terrifying to the elf but what helped calm him was how calm both Ohm and John were being, in fact, Ohm was actually smiling at the tiefling that was helping him and whispering something to him with the man pushing a response through closed teeth.

  
Smiity looked up at the sky, the sun was high and bright in the sky meaning it was around 2 in the afternoon, meaning the elf was in the forest for about half an hour. He looked at the man next to him, who was focused on the town in front of them, a serious look on his face.

  
“That was stupid of you, y’know,” He said, startling Smiity out of his daze to shoot the man a confused look. “Going into the forest alone, you’re lucky that Ohm was able to track you here and he managed to grab me and Toonz before coming.” He nodded his head to the males in front of them, who were now walking silently together. So the tiefling’s name is Toonz?

  
“How was I supposed to know that there would be faeries? And who would I have gone with?” The young elf asked, wondering why this man whom he had just met was telling him what to do.

  
“Well I’m sure that almost everyone had told you not to go to the forest and you could have just asked Mini or me, or Ohm,” He pointed out, and Smiity huffed out a breath, tired of this annoying human and how he was almost always right so far. John lifts his hands to rest behind his head as he shrugs. “Though with our first real interaction, I’m not surprised why you wouldn’t want to ask me.”

  
“Yeah no shit, asshole, I barely know you.” Smiity looked at him pointedly.

  
“But we should get you to Mini to get your wounds checked out, he’s the best healer I know.” He stopped and put a hand on the white-haired elf’s shoulder, stopping him as well so that he could get a good look at the mark on his neck that was dripping blood and the red marks on his wrists. The only thing was that the wound on his neck had healed and his wrists had no sign of having been held down against rough terrain just a minute ago.

  
John stares at the skin before he calls out for Ohm without looking up.

  
“Ohm, you might wanna see this.” The two in front of them turn around, worry on the elf's face and annoyance on the tiefling’s face.

  
“What happened? Is Smiity ok?”

  
“He’s more than fine, but that’s what’s worrying me.” Once the other two had made it over to Smiity and John, Ohm let go of Toonz’s neck and limped over to Smiity, taking his hands into his and looking at him.

  
“How, how is this possible? Do you know healing magic?” Ohm asks, running a hand over the other Elf’s neck.

  
“No, I’m studying elemental magic right now back home.” Ohm nods at this, Smiity is just as confused as everyone else.

  
“Do you only work with the elements?”

  
“For now, yes, but my mentor said that when I’m ready I can begin working in other fields and start on learning harder magic,” He recalls how his mentor told him that he has a lot of potential and that he would be able to most likely be more powerful than anyone in his family.

  
“Like mind magic?” John speaks up.

  
“I-I guess? He never told me what I could do exactly.”

  
“I think we need to get him a reading, maybe you can do it, Ohm.” Toonz, who had been quiet up until now, said with an accent that must be from a town or kingdom farther south.

  
“I think I might have to do a reading, I could feel his magic from a mile away. That's how I was able to tell he was in the forest.”

  
“Um, I’m right here,” Smiity speaks up, getting tired of everyone talking about him like he wasn’t right in front of them. He pulled his hands out of Ohm’s grasp. “And don’t think I want you to give me a ‘reading’ whatever that is, because I came here for a reason and since I obviously can’t get what I need, I am leaving, thank you for saving me, but goodbye.”

  
And with that the white-haired elf started to make his way back to the inn he was staying at, walking back through the town that had welcomed him with open arms. It was the first time he had been far away from home so it was a nice feeling to come somewhere so homely. He was glad that he hadn’t made friends or else it would be much harder to leave the place, but he needed to get home.

  
Once in his room, he pulls out the coin pouch and the small bag from under his pillow, grabbing his clothes and food for the journey home and placing them in the bag, also grabbing a map that had been tracked to him, allowing him to see where he was on the map. It was one of the first things he learned to enchant and had proven useful for the journey.

  
Once everything was either attached to his belt or slung over his shoulder on his back, he starts to make his way to the front of the inn where he can pay and leave. He steps out into the town again and turns to head towards the gate but before he can get even three steps out he’s stopped by a firm body, nearly smashing his forehead into the person’s chin but he’s able to stop himself before that happens. He backs away and looks up to apologize, but he’s met with the blue-green eyes of the last person he wants to see.

  
John.

  
“You’re really just gonna leave? After all that happened today? I mean, it was probably a bit traumatic for you. Maybe my friend can help you, talk you through some things. I’m sorry I’ve been kind of a dick but this is much more serious than you would think, so please come back with me?” He sounded sincere with his words, his voice was softer than both of the other times he had spoken to the elf. It made Smiity almost want to listen to him and let the wizard do a reading on him. John held his hand out for the shorter to take, which, after a few moments of debate, he did, letting the lute player pull him gently to the store that he had first met Ohm in earlier that day.

  
“Ohm? I managed to convince him.” John calls out when they enter, still holding on to Smiity’s hand, though Smiity doesn’t mind as much as he should.

  
“Oh great, you can bring him to the back, I have everything set up.” He could hear a voice from the back of the shop. John started to walk toward the counter where he let Smiity go first, never dropping his hand and leading him to the back.

  
“Good to see you came back Smit, I was really hoping you wouldn’t leave. I guess I could also thank John but I’m sure you came on your own volition.” Ohm was sitting on the ground behind a table on the floor that had a gray cloth over it. The room was filled with antiques and items of magic origin, how Smiity knew they were magic was unbeknownst to him, he could just feel the energy radiating from them. The room felt so thick and dense with magic essence that he could nearly cut it with his dagger if he wanted. “Unless he used a charm on you?” Ohm nods his head down to the two’s hands that were still interlocked and Smiity immediately ripped his hand away like it was burning. John frowned fakely.

  
“Awh, and here I thought, you were starting to like me.” He said, looking over at the elf who was looking like he was just about ready to murder the human right there right then.

  
“And here I thought you could be anything but dumb. Can I have the guy from a few minutes ago back?” Smiity asks, displeased with the man next to him.

  
“You can see him again when we go on our fourth date.” With a wink, he left the elf standing in the doorway with a flushed look on his face and his mouth open.

  
“You think I want to go on one date with you? Let alone four? You must really be dumb.”

  
“Ok you two, enough flirting, I need to ask Smiity some questions.”

  
“I was not flirting with him, he was-” Smiity was cut off.

  
“Well whatever it was, it needs to stop and you need to come over here and sit down.” Smiity shuts his mouth and starts to walk over to the table, not looking at John whatsoever and sitting down on the backs of his calves.

  
“I’m surprised you know what flirting is, Ohm, considering how you and ‘Toonzie’ always act.” He used an overly infatuated voice for the name Toonzie, Smiity assumes that it’s referencing the Toonz from earlier. Maybe the two were dating? Have crushes on each other? Ohm’s face, or what can be seen of it, starts to turn red, and Smiity thinks he was right about one of his guesses.  
“My relationship status with Cartoonz is none of your concern, Kryoz, so I suggest you stay out of it.” He seemed to be wanting someone to change the subject, so Smiity does, he was hung up on the name Ohm used for John.

  
“Kryoz?” He asks, turning to look at the other man in the room.

  
“It’s my stage name,” John explains, his arms crossed and body leaning on a vanity that had an assortment of hair products on it that held some magical abilities, some of them stronger than others.

  
“Anyway, let’s get to the reading, why don’t we?” Ohm brought the elf’s attention back to him and held out his hands, presumably for Smiity to place his hands in. Hesitantly, the white-headed elf placed his hands, palms up, in Ohm’s hands. “Ok, now close your eyes, take a deep breath in and focus on the magic you can feel inside of you right now.”

  
Smiity does as he’s told and closes his eyes, letting the darkness overtake his vision and submerging himself into the pits of his mind and core, searching for the magic that flows through his veins. He focuses first on what he can feel; the backs of his calves, the heat from Ohm’s hand, and a breeze from an open window. But if he focuses a little harder on Ohm’s hands, he can feel some sort of energy or force in the palms of the other elf, it was lifting his hands slightly off of the other’s hands.

  
He pulls his focus back to his own core. Paying attention to the rise and fall of his breath, feeling his lungs expand and compress. He could feel his heart, it was almost like it was beating louder than normal, his blood rushing through his veins loudly, thumping in his ears. He could feel something in his chest, not something physical, but something more than that. It was an energy. A spirit of some sort.

  
His eyes open and he sees a void, only blackness, and emptiness. But in the emptiness, there was a ball of light and electricity, sparks flying off of it at random. The light was a mix of color, red and blue, with the sparks coming off in purple.

  
Smiity felt compelled to go to the light like something was pulling his heart to it. His feet started to move, even with the lack of a floor, without a second thought. He was moving speedily through the void, getting closer and closer to the ball of electricity. Now he could see that it was much bigger than he originally thought, towering over him and reaching higher than an orc. He made his way over to it with an arm outstretched to touch it. And soon he was just barely close enough, he could feel the sparks nearly shock him, wisping the hair on his arm and filling him with a cooling sensation.

  
Right as he’s about to touch the ball he hears a loud voice fill his ears.

  
“Smiity!” Ohm says, shaking the elf who seemed unresponsive, looking into his wide purple eyes as the boy starts to blink as his eyes turn back to their usual blue and red colors. He looked at the elf in front of him, confused as to why he seemed so concerned but one glance around the room and he knew something had gone wrong.

  
Things were strewn about and pushed off of desks and shelves, some of them broken or cracked while others were completely fine. Smiity turned to look at John who was now sitting next to him only to see he was wearing a face full of shock.

  
“I-did I do that?” Smiity asks as he gestures around the room at the carnage that he might have created.

  
“It seems I may have underestimated your power and abilities. You didn’t tell me you had ancient magic in you.” Ohm pulled out a book that looked way too big to carry around and started to flip through the pages.

  
“I had no idea that I did, my family only told me that the magic has been passed down for generations but never that it was ancient.”

  
“Well, I don’t think that I can fully say what kind of magic you have, but it’s powerful, as you might have been able to guess.” He looks up from the book and gestures to the room around them. He continued his flipping until he landed on a page near the back of the book that had what looked to be a lady in white ancient robes. Her eyes were glowing a bright purple, almost like what Smiity eyes had turned to. Her hair was the same as Smiity’s, white, but hers was long and flowing. Actually, when Smiity looked close enough, the woman looked like him in a way.

  
“Why-who is that woman? And why does she look like me?” The younger elf asks, tilting his head to see the image better or read the text on the page that might describe her.

  
“That woman is the oracle Bianca, named after the moon, she was the holder of The Oracle’s Eye that I was telling you about. Why she looks like you, I have no idea, it could be a coincidence.” Ohm talks and drags his finger across the page as if reading the text. He looked up at John and Smiity. “This might take a while, you two should go and grab something to eat or do something, take Smiity to see the town, I’m going to need at least 2 hours.”

  
“Sounds good to me, I wouldn’t mind taking this cutie out on a date,” John says, wrapping an arm around the white-haired elf’s waist, resting his hand on his hip. The action sends a shiver up Smiity’s spine and a blush appears on his pale cheeks, extenuating his complexion.

  
“John! Out!” Ohm says harshly, pointing to the door without looking up from the book. Maybe he can see through the mask.

  
“Ok, ok, you don’t have to shout. Come on Smiithers.” The nickname rolls off his tongue easily and like it had been said a million times before. John starts to stand from where he was sat on the ground next to Smiity, who also started to stand, completely ignoring the hand that was held out for him to help him up. John started to walk out of the back with Smiity following closely. Once at the front door of the shop, John opened the door but stepped to the side and bowed his head while holding out his hand to the outdoors, letting the shorter male go first. Smiity thanked the man, slightly too politely, and started to walk. Not to a particular place, just in general. He couldn’t go back to the inn seeing as he had already paid the amount due and it would be awkward to go back and ask for another room. He could go to the library and read up on Bianca, maybe that druid he saw earlier could help him. Or he could grab a small treat at the bakery he was at earlier.

  
Smiity was so encased in his thoughts that he didn’t realize Kryoz slipping his hand into his and starting to pull him in the direction of a few small homes. John could see that the other man was in his thoughts, he found it endearing how the man’s eyes stared in front of him, unfocused and pupils wider. He started blinking rapidly and a confused look appeared on his face.

  
“Where the fuck do you think you’re taking me?” He asks, confused as ever-loving hell as to how long he had been in the clouds. “And why are you holding my hand again?” Smiity didn’t mind the feeling of the others hand in his, it was a nice presence that helped bring him down from the clouds that drew him up so quickly.

  
“Well, this is our first date and I thought that a kiss to wake you up from your slumber was a bit forward, so this was the next best thing.” He didn’t turn to look at Smiity, who was taking in the other man’s features up close. “Also we’re going to my house since you don’t have anywhere to stay.”

  
“I never said that I would stay with you.”

  
“Yes, but you also haven’t pulled away so that’s saying something.” He points out and Smiity goes to point out any flaw in that logic, but before he can John speaks up again. “Here we are! Home sweet home.”

  
He pulled out a key to let himself in, unlocking the door. The house from the outside looked nice in size, big enough for two people to live comfortably, maybe three people if they needed. The inside was more or less the same, there was a couch to the right of the front door and a dining table to the left with the kitchen being also to the left only further into the house. There were stairs that lead up behind the couch and above the kitchen, next to that was a door that presumably led to some other room.

  
“Do you have another person with you?” Came a voice from behind the door, it sounded somewhat familiar but Smiity couldn’t place where he had heard it.

  
“Technically yes, but it’s different this time,” John replied he must have a lot of people over.

  
“How is it different? Did you take them out of a steak dinner first? You know I don’t like to hear your ‘activities’ whenever you bring someone home- oh hey again.” The man was the baker from earlier, Craig if Smiity remembered correctly. “Oh no, did he get to you too?” Craig asked, noticing the two’s hands interlocked.

  
“What?” He looked down and saw that he was still holding hands with John, he quickly pulled his hand out of John’s grip. “No, he pulled me here against my will.”

  
“John,” Now Craig sounded disappointed. “That’s kidnapping.”

  
“He didn’t object, so it’s not kidnapping, and anyways he’s an adult not a kid.” John retorted, closing the door and walking into the home to sit on the couch. Smiity stayed standing. “He needs a place to stay so I thought we could let him stay here for a little bit.”

  
“I guess he could stay here, either in your room or on the couch though,” Craig said and walked over to Smiity, holding his hand out to the elf. “We were never properly introduced, I’m Craig or Mini.” Smiity smiles and takes his hand, shaking it lightly.

  
“Smiity.”

  
“I’m really sorry about John, he can be annoying to say the least, please come and sit,” Craig says, gesturing to the couch that Kryoz had already made himself comfortable on.

  
“Well he did save me from being captured by fae so I kinda can’t be mad at him.” Smiity started to walk over to the couch before a hand fell to his shoulder, stopping him.

  
“He what? Why were you with the fae? Do you...do you work with them?” Mini asked, with a scarred face.

  
“No no no, I was...I was uhh…” He trailed off, not really wanting to say that he went into the forbidden forest that everyone had warned him not to even go near.

  
“He was in the forest,” John said, making Craig’s jaw fall.

  
“What? Why? I’m assuming literally everyone told you not to do that.” He started to rant and lecture the elf who just stood there and watched this man he had just met tell him off like an annoyed mom. He only stopped his onslaught of attacks when John got up and came up behind Smiity.

  
“I think he got the memo when I told him it was stupid and from the abundance of questions from Ohm that came after the incident.” John pulled the white-haired elf away from the scorning man and brought him to sit on the couch.

  
“What the hell does that mean? And Ohm was there? This is very vague John.” Craig followed the two and sat down in a chair adjacent to where the couch was seated in front of a fireplace and coffee table.

  
“Why don’t I let Smiithers over here tell you.” His arm fell behind the man next to him, over his shoulders and on to the soft couch behind him. There was a pause as Smiity sent a glare to the man next to him and turned back to Craig with a hesitant smile.

  
“Let me tell the whole thing from start to end, then decide my fate please.” With a nod from the man in front of him he began to tell him what had happened, recounting how he needed something to help with his focus and the forest had an ingredient so he was sent off to retrieve it. How he had no idea that it was fae that lived in the forest and thus had no idea what he was actually getting himself into. How he used his magic to protect himself and the shield that had surrounded him while in the forest. How both Ohm and John had come to help him with Cartoonz saving Ohm later on. How he had no visible wounds from the battle and how that made Ohm curious as to what his magic was. He told the man how Ohm had done a reading on him and how he practically destroyed the room during said reading with no recollection of that even though his eyes were reportedly open.

  
He said that they were kicked out of the building for Ohm to do research and ended up where they are currently after that.

  
“Wow, and this all happened within the span of like three hours? Cause I saw you while I was still on my shift which was like two hours ago.” Smiity nodded along with John who was adding additional points and facts as Smiity told the story, things that he had left out.

  
“Yeah, I guess it did, it felt it was longer than that.” Smiity murmured, looking down at his feet.

  
“Well at least you made it out alive, most people don’t get that lucky.” Mini’s attempt at reassurance did nothing to help Smiity who was starting to feel a bit nauseous and his head was starting to spin. He could feel something warm that was resting against his thigh. He reached into the pouch that held The Oracles Eye and pulled out the necklace only to find that it was glowing a dark purple color. His eyes widened as he looked closer into the gem and saw something he will never be able to forget.

  
It was his mother, her long, white curls framing her face and her beautiful blue eyes looking at Smiity, but there was something that was not right about the scene. He looked into his mother's eyes and what he saw was fear. He began to realize that her white hair was covered in a red substance and she was in chains and had the same red dripping down her chin.

Blood

She looked bruised and beaten and it seemed that she was in some sort of dungeon. Smiity’s eyes widened at the scene, feeling like he wanted to vomit or maybe cry. More scenes similar to this one plagued both his mind and the jewel, showing how a big man had stormed into his village and had asked for his family, killing and fighting all who stood in front of him. He couldn’t see much of the details but what he could see was horrifying.

He hoped that these were all just figments of his imagination, or that they were fake, but something in his brain told him that this was real.

He dropped the necklace on to his lap once he found the strength to look away, eyes watering and hand that was held up to his mouth. Craig had gotten up from the chair and kneeled down to place a hand on the white-haired elf’s shoulder and John had removed his arm from behind him, instead opting to take his hand.

  
Suddenly, before anyone can ask any questions, Cartoonz bursts through the door with Ohm following close behind him with a wide-eyed look on his face, seeming out of breath.

  
“I have an answer.”


	2. The Truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Suddenly, before anyone can ask any questions, Cartoonz bursts through the door with Ohm following close behind him with a wide-eyed look on his face, seeming out of breath.
> 
> “I have an answer.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this has a certain someone in the first few paragraphs but trust me he disappears after the first bit.
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OziLI8Nua4c
> 
> that's the link to the song John sings, I wrote it myself and that's also me singing in the video, I know the audio is terrible don't come at me.

“What the hell Cartoonz! You just broke down my door!” Mini yells and stands up from where he was trying to comfort the crying elf. “And now is not the best time!” He gestures to the elf on the couch who now had his face shoved into the chest of John who was currently rubbing his back and trying to calm him down.

“I apologize for the inconvenience but this is much more serious than we thought, and what happened to Smiity?” Ohm asks, rushing over to the man on the couch, pushing Mini out of the way and kneeling next to Smiity.

“We don’t really know, he just picked up the necklace and started staring at it when he started to cry,” Mini explains, now standing behind the couch next to the tiefling.

“He must’ve seen something in the necklace, and it must have been terrifying whatever it was.” Ohm realized as he noticed the amulet resting on the younger elf’s lap. “Smiity, you need to tell us what you saw, we can’t help you if you don’t tell us.”

Smiity looks up from where his head was now buried against Kryoz’s chest and starts to take deep breaths, his face still red and wet from the tears that were falling not even a minute before. He pulls away from the man that was still holding him and turns to look at the newcomer.

“I saw my family,” He stated, tears starting to well up in his eyes again as the images of his house on fire burned through his brain and the taste of blood was heavy on his tongue. “And they were being attacked by a man that I’ve never seen before, he was...terrifying” Smiity shuddered at the thought of the man who had taken over his hometown.

“Can you tell me what he looked like? Or what exactly was happening?” Ohm says, pushing to get more information about this mysterious man.

“I-I don’t know, I can’t remember, but he was interrogating my mom about something, his back was turned to me. But I saw that my entire house was nearly… it was nearly burnt to the ground and he was…he,” Smiity’s voice trailed off as the tears started to fall from his eyes again and he looked down to his feet.  
He could feel how his mother’s hair was being gripped tightly, and the man was lifting her from where she was kneeling on the ground. He could feel the cold and harsh metal that was holding his father back from helping his mother, trapped in some form of a jail cell.

“Hey, it’ll be ok, it wasn’t real,” John says, rubbing his back again to try and stop the elf from crying, though it seems that his attempt was futile as a sob racks through the smaller man’s body.

Ohm turns his head to the direction of Cartoonz who was still standing behind the couch with a slight frown.

“I’m sorry but that was a vision, a prediction of the future. I should have never allowed you to take the necklace, it was a stupid idea, and now that you’ve seen something I can’t take it back. I’m sorry.” Ohm turned back to the man on the couch, a frown on his face. Smiity’s eyes shoot open and his head snaps to look at the elf next to him.

“The necklace allows the owner to see the future?” Ohm nods at the white-haired elf. “That means that what I saw hasn’t happened yet, that means I can change it, right? That I have time to get home and stop that from happening.” The hope in the elf’s heterochromatic eyes was evident as he leaned over the couch’s armrest to force the other man to look in his direction.

“I’m sorry Smiity, but the future is already set, it can’t be changed.” Ohm’s voice revealed his remorse for the situation that Smiity was thrust into.

Smiity looked back to the ground, the tears starting to appear in his eyes again before he shoved his head back into the chest of Kryoz who was looking at the smaller man with sad eyes. John immediately wrapped his arms back around the elf and let him soak his shirt with tears. Sure, the two men barely knew each other but Smiity could feel a sense of safety while the lutist was holding him, making him feel like he wasn’t alone even though what he just saw suggested he was.

“That’s not all,” Ohm spoke up again, this time Smiity didn’t move from where he was. “Bianca was said to have had a son before she died, and it is also said that her bloodline is still alive to this day.” This makes Smiity’s head turn to look up slightly from the chest it was buried in.

“What are you saying?” He asks, his voice slightly muffled from still being hidden away in John’s chest.

“I’m saying that there is a possibility that you might be related to Bianca, and if that is the case then we have much bigger problems on our hands and that man you saw is much more of a threat than you would think,” Ohm stated. Smiity shoots up from where he was and his head snaps to look at the wizard next to him, disbelief evident on his face.

“What the fuck are you saying? I’m related to Bianca? There’s no way that’s true, my family would’ve been bragging about that for centuries, they’re way too proud of themselves for me to not know about it.” Smiity was in a state of shock, having trouble finding the words that he wanted to say, the things that were rattling around in his brain. He couldn’t even begin to fathom the idea that he might be related to one of the most notorious oracles in the known history.

“I know it’s a lot to accept but-”

“A lot to accept? This is ridiculous, first, you say that my family is being attacked, which by the way, we have no known enemies, and next, you tell me I’m related to a fucking oracle? What’s next? That I’m destined to be the next oracle?” Smiity joked, almost hysterical by now and wanting for the man in front of him to stop messing with him, but the way that Ohm made a sort of half-smile that seemed more sympathetic than joking made his face drop. “Now you’re fucking with me,”

“You’re magic was a lot stronger and more powerful than anything I’ve ever seen before and it might explain who that man you saw is and what he wants,” Ohm says, speaking with his hands, gesturing to show emphasis on different things.

“Well then, what does he want with my family? Why will he attack them?” Smiity crossed his arms over his chest, still not convinced that what he was told is true in any way, shape, or form.

“He’s looking for you. If you are related to Bianca then he would want to get to you.”

“And why am I the one he would be looking for? What’s so special about me?” Smiity was still a bit exasperated, but he was beginning to see how everything was lining up and not in his favor. Ohm pauses for a second, taking a breath before he continued on what he was going to say. He seems hesitant, reluctant to say what he was about to.

“There’s something that I didn’t tell you- about Bianca’s legend.” His head dropped for a second, contemplating something. Smiity looks at him flabbergasted. “The person who was supposed to take up her mantle of Oracle would have her eyes. Her eyes were said to be the main part of her magic, they were how she could see the future. And you...you have the exact eyes that she was said to have, dark red and deep blue, like fire and water.”

Smiity had a look in his eyes that showed his world seemed to come crashing down all around him, everything he was used to would change, and nothing would ever go back to being the same. He would never get to play with his younger siblings and cousins in the courtyard again, never taste his mother’s cooking or his father’s baking, never hear his mentor’s wise words again, hear him tell Smiity that he has much to learn, but he will be powerful once he does.

What he wanted to hear was that Ohm must be lying and that he can’t be related to Bianca, but there was something in the back of his mind that said he was telling the truth, something saying that this all made sense and that it was bound to surface now or later.

“You must have realized that something was off when you were a child, being able to tell when something will happen without knowing quite why, or maybe constantly predicting things like you can see them right before they happen.” Smiity starts to think back to his younger years, times that he would know things like knowing about him getting younger siblings before his parents would tell him. Ohm cuts into Smiity’s thoughts, bringing him back to reality. “I know this is a lot to take in all at once, and we’re still not sure if this is true, but everything seems to add up.”

“Hey, Smit, do you wanna take a step outside to get some air?” A voice came from next to Smiity, who turned to see John looking at him with a look of reassurance. It was a nice break from the half-baked sympathy that he was getting from everyone in the room, well, he couldn’t tell for Ohm, but he could practically feel the pity emitting from everyone apart from Kryoz.

“Yeah, that sounds...nice.” He said in a whisper, looking back down at the floor until he feels the couch move and feet come to stand in front of him. He looks up to see John in front of him with a small smile on his face and his hand outstretched for Smiity to take, to which he does and John pulls him up to his feet carefully.

The two begin to make their way to the door, John holding it open for Smiity just like he did back at Ohm’s shop. They take a step out, the thought of looking back at the others not even present in their minds. Smiity takes a seat on the steps that lead up to the house and tucks his knees up to his chest as he buries his face there. He hears the door close from behind him.

“Hey, do you, uh, wanna talk about it?” John asks, sitting down on the step below the white-haired elf, leaning on his arms that were on the same level as Smiity and his legs outstretched on the dirt road.

“Why didn’t he just tell me about that part in the prophecy in the first place? This wouldn’t have happened if he just told me that I have the same eyes as her, or-or that I’m- that I- he should have told me something.” Smiity couldn’t seem to find the words that were plaguing his mind, he wasn’t able to express his frustration or his grief. He was mostly mumbling into his knees but John could hear him due to the silence that surrounded the town.

The sun was still up but you can see that it was on its descent, the sky starting to change its color to a light pink mixed with the blue that was already there.

“Listen, I’m sure this is hard, and it was probably hard for Ohm to tell you, but it was wrong of him to not mention that part of the prophecy.” John paused, taking a breath before continuing, “I know how it feels to lose family, and it’s not fun, but over the years I realized that it’s better to move on and forward from that time and and that you have the friends that you’ve made over the years to be your new family.” He looks over to the white-haired male with a smile, shocked to find him looking back at him with glossy eyes and a trembling frown on his lips. Then suddenly, said male threw himself into John’s arms, burying his face in the taller man’s shoulder as new tears started to spill from his eyes.

“Everyone there- every single person back at home was my friend. I’ve never been outside the village, I never had to, no one did. That was until I needed to get this stupid flower. I-I left and this happened. Oh, Gods, this is my fault, isn’t it? I shouldn’t have gone, I should have just stayed with my family.” Smiity pulled his head away from John’s shoulder and moved back to where he was previously, starting to hyperventilate as tears continued to fall from his eyes, thus causing more trouble for his breathing.

John’s quickly grabs Smiity’s hand and squeezes it tightly to ground the smaller elf. He started to rub circles into the back of his hand while using his free hand to wipe away Smiity’s tears.

“Hey, hey, look at me,” He says gently as he tugs on the white-haired man’s wrist to gain his attention, “you did not cause this, you are not to blame for anything. Fate is set in stone and you can’t change that, I’m so sorry that you had to witness that atrocity, no one should be put through that, but you can’t change the future no matter how hard you try.” He looked into the elf’s eyes as he said these things, wanting his words to be embedded into his mind so that he wouldn’t forget them.

“But, if I had just-”

“You cannot change the past as that has already happened, and you cannot fix the future for there is no avoiding fate, so it is best to leave it alone.” John squeezed the smaller man’s hand in his and tried to give him the best look of reassurance he could as the man in front of him stopped fully crying but was still sniffling. A few moments of the two sharing the look of John smiling softly and Smiity starting to smile go by and soon the elf realizes just what John had said which makes him smile even more.

“Where did that wisdom come from? The Kryoz I know is an idiot.” He says, face still red from the tears and eyes puffy but smile wide.

“I’ll have you know that I made that up on the spot, so who’s the idiot now?” John says with confidence as Smiity pulls his hand back to himself.

“Still you, dumbass.” Smiity laughed at the look of shock and offense that the next to him shot him.

“Well excuse me while I go and cry about my unrequited love, don’t come looking for me, it’ll only give me hope,” John said fake crying and standing up to start walking in the direction of the town square. He continued his bit as he walked away from the house, turning to look back at the elf every few steps only to look back and start “crying” harder. Smiity watches for a few moments before standing up to join John on his walk to wherever he was going.

“So where are we going? Or are you planning on running from me again?” Smiity asks once he catches up to John who had since stopped his “crying” and started walking with his arms behind his head.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” The dismissal of his little fit made Smiity roll his eyes. “And we’re going to take a walk around the town, I don’t think you want to go back inside just yet and this is better than just sitting on the stairs.”

Smiity looked over to the man next to him with a look of astonishment. John could be really sweet if he tried, he wasn’t just the asshole who had tried to get into his pants upon first meeting him. He thought back to what John had said earlier about how he knows what it’s like to lose family and wonders who the man really is.

“You gonna keep staring again?” John asks, looking over to Smiity with a smirk on his face. It makes the white-haired elf blush and he turns away from the man who, he realized, wasn’t even looking at him. He huffed out a breath of air when he heard a laugh coming from the lutist next to him.

“You gonna not be an asshole?” He looked at Kryoz pointedly as the man lowered his hands from his head in a way to show his defeat while shrugging.

“You got me there, but if you keep staring at me with that look on your face I might start to think you have a crush on me,” John wraps an arm around the shorter man’s shoulders and pulls him closer to his body. Both the gesture and the suggestion that he might like John makes Smiity blush profusely and he tries to push the man away but he’s much stronger than the smaller elf.

“Yeah, sure, like that makes sense, I’ve only known you for like 8 hours.”

“They say it only takes 6 minutes to fall in love,” John says in a sing-song sort of voice. Eventually, Smiity gives up on trying to get out of the bard’s grip and instead focuses on where they’re going. He looks around them and notices that they’re close to the bakery where they had met for the first time earlier in the day.

“Are we going to that bakery?” He asks, looking up to the man that was still holding him under his arm, a small smile on his face as he kept leading them closer to the stand. He kept quiet and didn’t answer the question asked, though it was obvious where they were going. “Are you ignoring me now? Wow, and here I thought you loved me.”

“Oh don’t get your panties in a bunch, we’re almost there,” John said and let go of the elf and pushed him away. If Smiity looked close enough he could see the barest hint of a blush resting on John’s cheeks, but it was so subtle that he might have imagined it. “Here we are!”

Smiity looks in front of him to see the bakery, only this time there was a shorter dwarf that was behind the counter. He seemed to have a mask covering the bottom half of his face and his neck, he also had chainmail armor on, it made Smiity wonder why he was wearing it.

“Eric! What a surprise!” John says as he walks up to the counter and leans over it slightly.

“I own this place, you know this, Kryoz.” the dwarf, Eric, said, looking unimpressed at John. Smiity takes a look over the man in front of him, he looks like he shouldn’t be a baker, most dwarves don’t really go into that profession.

“Really? I had no idea.” The sarcasm in John’s voice was apparent and over-enunciated to the point that Smiity could practically feel it dripping from the words that left John’s mouth. “Oh, this is Smiity, by the way. Smiity, Eric.” John introduced the two and the short man stuck his hand out for Smiity to shake.

“Call me Swagger,” His grip was firm and he had a warm look in his eyes, he must be smiling. “You must be new around here, I’ve never seen you around before.”

“I got here yesterday, though it feels like it’s already been days since I arrived.” Smiity chuckles and thinks back through the day that felt like it happened over the course of a week.

“And yet he’s already managed to disobey the one rule we gave him multiple times.”

“You went to the forest?” Swagger raises an eyebrow at the elf whose face showed his disgruntlement.

“You don’t have to tell everyone, y’know.” Smiity turns to look at the annoying man next to him.

“But I do, then everyone knows that I saved your life.” John reminded him.

“Hey, Ohm helped, it wasn’t just you.”

“You would probably prefer if it was just me though, carrying you off like a damsel in distress, not that you weren’t that already.” Smiity scoffs at the remark Kryoz said with a smug look on his face, he wanted nothing more than to get rid of the smile that was on his lips.

“Are you two gonna get anything or are you just gonna keep flirting.” Swagger cuts into the conversation that was happening in front of him with a sigh.

“Why does everyone think we’re flirting?” Smiity says, exasperated and sick of people thinking he would hold any sort of attraction to the lutist. Though he reminded himself that the man is fairly attractive, even if he’s annoying as shit.

“Maybe because we are? Admit it, you like me.” Smiity rolls his eyes and looks back to the short man behind the counter. “Anyways, we’ll have some gamersupps,” John says smoothly like he’s said it multiple times in the past and knows exactly what he wanted before he even started moving to the small bakery stall.

“Does this kid even know what he’s about to get into?” Swagger asks, looking over the elf with a curious gaze.

“Nope,” he pops the ‘p’, “not a clue.”

“Then why are you here?” Swagger asks, his arms crossing over his body.

“I want some gamersupps, and my friend here-” Smiity scoffs at the label given to him- “needs something of a pick-me-up.”

There’s a pause before Swagger uncrosses his arms and sighs.

“Ok, I’ll get you some, you can’t trust everyone in the world you know, but this kid seems fine enough. You can go ahead and tell him what this is but only when you’re away from the town square.” Swagger says and turns to go and get something. He takes a step to the back of the stall and disappears under the counter, almost as if he had fallen through a hole in the floor. Smiity’s eyes widen and he leans over the counter only to see Swagger on the ground and a stool behind him. He’s about 4'8 and looks very muscular, how he got into the bakery business is unbeknownst to Smiity, seen as he looks like he should be a warrior or maybe a blacksmith.

He walked back to where there was a small display of sweet treats and other baked goods, pushing a few different treats out of the way to reveal a small compartment hiding behind all of the merchandise. He pulls out a key that was on a necklace tucked under his shirt, using the key to open up the compartment. The compartment looks to hold some more brownies and cookies, but why are they hidden from the rest of the sweets?

The short man reaches into the compartment with a small cloth and pulls out a smaller brownie chunk, handing it over to John who takes it graciously with a smile on his face. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small pouch of what looks to be coins and places it on the table of the stall.

“Pleasure doing business with you,” John smiles to Swagger who nods and turns to pull some bread out of an oven. Smiity looks over to John with a confused look on his face, John only raises an eyebrow at him which doesn’t help. “You’re staring again,” he says the words so easily.

“I am not, I was just confused that’s all.” Smiity’s shrugs and rolls his eyes at the man next to him before they both turn and start to walk away.

“Have fun on your date!” Swagger calls out to the two, a devious look in his eyes. Both John and Smiity stop and blush as they look at each other before looking away.

“You have fun with Fitz!” John called out while hiding his face from the smaller elf.

“I will!” The two keep walking away seeing as what John said seemed to not affect the short man. They walked to a more desolate area where there was a tree that stood tall in the middle of a courtyard surrounded by a small pond with stones around it to sit on and hang out around.

“Fitz is his fiancé, by the way,” John said after they sit down, staying silent for a beat.

“Oh, well I hope she’s happy with him.” Smiity replied with a smile, in his mind he was thinking about how he wanted someone to eventually spend his life with. Someone kind and thoughtful and-

“He is happy with him.” John says, taking Smiity off guard, but he nodded.

“My heteronormativity is showing isn’t it?” He asked with a slight smirk on his face, to which Kryoz looked to him and smirked back.

“Yeah, a little bit.” He made a gesture with his hands to show just how much, pinching his fingers in close together but not actually touching them. They both laugh lightly before falling into a somewhat uncomfortable silence.

“Do you want to try some of the brownie?” John spoke up after a moment of silence.

“I would usually say yes, but right now I’m kinda nervous about what’s in it based on how Swagger didn’t want to give me any.” Smiity looked to the man next to him with a raised eyebrow, John only laughed.

“It’s just a type of plant that gets you high that was baked into it, I usually have some when I need to get away from life and you seem to need that right now,” the smile on his face was warm and the words he said touched the elf’s heart, realizing that this man had more to him than just a flirty bard who doesn’t know how to not be dramatic, he’s a real living being with real feelings and struggles. Looking in John’s eyes that showed he cared, made something in Smiity light up and he smiled widely.

“That sounds nice, I might have to try it,” he said as he leaned his head on to the man’s shoulder as he broke the small brownie in half and held it out to the white-haired elf. Smiity lifted his hand to take the treat but his head started to hurt. His hand reached up to press against his temple as the pain started to set in and pound against his skull like a hammer. Both hands move to his head and he tries to massage the pain out, not seeing anything but the nothing behind his eyelids.

Then suddenly he could see again, but it wasn’t the courtyard, in fact, his eyes weren’t even open. No, what he could see was a tall man making his way through a forest, he had a hood up but Smiity could tell it was the same man from his earlier vision, noticing how he had some type of emblem on the back of his cloak. The man was talking to someone, and walking up to them, but Smiity couldn’t see who. That was until he saw the glowing yellow eyes of someone he had managed to avoid just hours ago. It was Bayard.

The two had grasped hands and both nodded in agreement of something, maybe they were making a deal of some sort?

The white-haired elf’s eyes shoot wide open and he realizes that he’s now lying down and in a different place than before, it looked like someone's bedroom. He turned his head to see John and Swagger talking to someone, he was tall, much taller than Swagger by about two feet, and his pointed ears revealed his elvish heritage. They’re talking softly only a few feet away from the bed that Smiity had found himself in. The tall elf noticed how he had woken up and turned to face him with a smile.

“Hi there, John here says you passed out after gripping your head like you had a headache, he carried you here in hopes that I could find out what happened.” He said, walking over to the smaller elf as Smiity sat up on the bed.

“Who are you?” Smiity said as his eyes adjusted to the light of the room.

“My name is Cam, but you can call me Fitz,” so this was Swagger’s fiancé? He’s a lot taller than what Smiity originally thought, with Swagger being a dwarf, but who was he to judge? The man looked nice and seemed to know things that Smiity could use. The white-haired male nodded and looked over to the other two in the room, John was already walking over to him, standing on the other side of the bed opposite from the tall elf.

“Hey, man you ok? You just passed out on me, I didn’t know what to do.” He said, attempting to make a joke but his voice and eyes gave away what he was really thinking.

“I...I had another vision, we have to go, and soon.”

“What do you mean you ‘had another vision’? I thought you needed the necklace to do that?” John asked as Smiity attempted to stand from the bed, Fitz coming to help but the white-haired elf only waved him off and used the bed frame as support. He eventually gives up, his arms too tired to lift his body and his legs too weak to hold him up.

“I guess that proves Ohm’s theory then,” he said quietly, not happy at the connotations that the statement and revelation held.

“I’m sorry, Smit, I know this is hard.” John walks over to the smaller boy and places a hand on his shoulder for reassurance, but all Smiity can do is look up with tears in his eyes. “Why do we have to leave though? What happened in your vision.” John sits down on the bed next to the elf.

“Well, it was in the forest, and that man was there again, I couldn’t see his face, he had some sort of a cloak on, but he did have an insignia on his cloak, it looked like a three letters in one, maybe B, L, and H, I think, but he was meeting with one of the faeries that attacked me in the forest-”

“You were in the forest?” Fitz cut him off, a shocked look on his face.

“Yes, I was in the forest, now let me say what I have to say.” he paused for a second to let himself breathe before continuing, “they looked like they were planning something, I-I couldn’t hear them though. I just know that we-- or at least I have to leave.” he finished his thoughts, standing up and looking around the room and starting to pace the floor.

“Well if you’re leaving here then I’m joining you,” John said confidently, standing from the bed and looking at Smiity with a stare of determination.

“You don’t have to, I don’t want to drag you into this and I’ve barely known you for more than half a day-” John raised a hand to cut the white-haired elf off.

“I want to come with you, and anyways you’ll need saving from time to time and who else to do that then your knight in shining armor?” He balls his fists up and places them on his hips in a power stance. “But this man is a lot more dangerous than you probably know, he’s probably a part of Blight, maybe even the leader.” John’s voice got more serious when he said this.

“Who’s Blight?” Smiity asked confusedly.

“They’re a sort of large group of mercenaries and thugs who terrorize people until they give up their money or anything worth any form of value, this includes people.” Swagger spoke up from where he was near the door, his head down and his gaze sharp, like he had had an encounter with these people before and it didn’t end well. Fitz walked over to where his fiancé was standing and put a hand on his shoulder to console him. Smiity looked over to John for some sort of answer to what was going on but the man wasn’t looking at him, he had a pinched expression on his face, brows furrowed together. “If this is them, then we’ll need to get out of the town as fast as possible,” Swagger said after taking a deep breath and placing his hand over the taller Elf’s.

“Again, ‘We’? I’m not sure all of you should be coming with me. You all have lives here and I don’t want to interfere with that,” Smiity almost laughed at the thought of people actually wanting to drop what they have here to help this random elf get away from a highly-feared group of people that were out to find him no matter what it takes.

“Listen, I know we just met, but it’s been getting pretty boring here and I’m sure all of us agree that we would like some more action in our lives,” Swagger said and everyone in the room seemed to agree on that and it seemed that the only person opposing the idea of them joining Smiity was himself. He sighed and looked to his lap, weighing his options in his mind.

On one hand, having people with him could potentially be useful in that they could have shifts at night to make sure nothing bad happened and no one would try to steal from the camp, and he would be less likely to get mugged while traveling. Contrarily, having people may slow him down and if they get separated that wouldn’t be too good, but did he even have anywhere to go? His home was out of the question and he had no friends outside of his home town, meaning he would have no one that he could trust to house him until he found a way to get rid of the people or person trying to find him.

He made his decision.

“Ok, I guess it would be better to have you all with me, I have no idea where I could go and I’ll probably need your help with a lot of things,” He said begrudgingly, crossing his arms over his chest and making a slightly annoyed face showing that he had no intention of letting people he barely knows join him on a journey away from their home. The people around him cheer which makes him roll his heterochromatic eyes.

“We should all probably pack for the trip, I’m sure we won’t be back for a while, if ever, so pack the essentials and other things that you can carry, we should leave first thing in the morning so try and get some good sleep,” Fitz says, looking outside the bedroom window to look at where the sun was in the sky.

“That’s smart, if we all go to sleep sooner rather than later then we can get up at dawn and head out.” Swagger agrees which makes both John and Smiity nod and stand up from the bed. “We’ll meet in the courtyard, Cam and I will bring some bread and other things for food, you two don’t need to worry about that.”

“That sounds good, and thank you, for all that you’ve done, it’s helped me in more ways than I can say,” The white-haired elf says as he and the taller man make their way to the front door of the house. Swagger nodded with a soft look in his eyes, even though Smiity couldn’t see his mouth, he could tell the man was smiling.

And once again, Smiity and John were out in the warm air of the evening, walking back to John’s house, the sun slowly starting to set in the distance. The only thing that filled the air was silence, both of them not wanting to break it with feeble small talk that would just feel awkward, so they let it be. But there were still a few questions plaguing both of their minds.

“Are you sure you want to come with me? You seem to have such a nice life here and I would hate to ruin that for you. It sounds like this is pretty serious and you could probably get hurt.” The white-haired elf decided to voice his thoughts, asking the man next to him what was on his mind. John stopped in his tracks to turn to the elf next to him, waiting for the shorter male to look at him and pause his walking.

“First of all, life here is boring and I want to get back out into the world where there’s some form of danger and adventure behind every corner. And secondly, I find it cute that you actually care for me,” John says, smirking as he finished his thought which made Smiity blush lightly and look away from the bard.

“Shut up,” He mumbled. “And I guess you’re right.”

“I’m always right.” This makes Smiity make a ‘pfft’ sound as the two start to walk again.

“Yeah right, you’re wrong about one thing.”

“And what would that be, oh great-and-all-knowing-oracle?” John asks sarcastically.

“You seem to be under the impression that I like you, which would be incorrect to assume, seen as you’ve been nothing but a nuisance to me.” The words are said in a teasing manner, showing that he meant no offense, and none was taken.

“Didn’t we already have this conversation? And wasn’t the outcome that I’m smarter than you think and you like staring at me?” This makes the elf roll his eyes with a playful smile on his face before he turns to the man who said it who was sporting a teasing grin on his face.

“Oh would you look at that, I just had another vision, it was of you actually leaving me alone. What a concept.” Smiity’s voice radiated sarcasm but his eyes shone with amusement when he saw the smirk drop from John’s face and a look of betrayal and a scoff left his mouth. John pauses in his tracks to have a small dramatic pause for effect but the smaller man just kept walking back to the bard’s house with a smile. When the taller human was done with being dramatic, he jogged to catch back up to the shorter and pushed him slightly when he got close enough.

“You’re a bitch, you know that?” John said while Smiity laughed as he stumbled before standing upright again and regaining his composure, looking over to John with a serious face.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about Kryoz,” He tries not to break his serious facade, but after seeing the face that John makes that showed his contempt for the boy was worth cracking a smile. John smiles slightly back at the elf and continues to his house. Smiity follows close behind him, only pausing when they get closer and closer to the house, his feet refusing to go any further. John turns to look at him with a confused face.

“What’s up? Have another vision?” He asks, walking up to Smiity and placing a hand on his arm, genuine concern on his face.

“No, no, it’s not that…” He trailed off, looking anywhere but John’s eyes.

“What is it then?”

“It’s just...I can’t explain it, but I don’t want to face everyone again, I’m not ready to have to face my supposed ‘destiny’,” He used quotation marks at the end of his sentence, trying to form a comprehensible thought that he could use to make John understand why he doesn’t want to go back to the house.

“Ok, well, we could always go out to eat, my roommate will be out of the house in a couple of hours and be gone all night, so we can go to the tavern and get a couple of drinks before heading back,” John says, making Smiity’s eyes finally look into his, his mind finally calming down at the thought of not having to go back to where he was bound to have to talk to Ohm about things. Smiity nodded at the lutist in front of him, finally being able to breathe properly again.

“That sounds like a plan.”

“Great, it’s a date then!” Before Smiity can even process what John had said, the man is already turning to leave in the direction of the tavern, his hands behind his head as he walks.

“Hey! Get your ass back here, this is not a date!” Smiity called after the man, who pretended not to hear the elf’s words and just kept walking. “I swear on Kokone, John, this is not a date!”

Smiity let out an exasperated sigh and started marching to the man who was far ahead of him, elbowing him in his exposed side, causing the other male to double over in pain.

“Ok, I-” he wheezed out, “I deserved that.”

“Yeah, you really did,” Smiity says, and continues to walk towards the tavern, not waiting for John to stand upright, who takes a few seconds to regain his composure. Smiity only looks back at the man behind him when a hand is placed on his shoulder, not quite caring what he was doing.

“I know the owner and he owns me a few favors, so we should be able to get the first few drinks free, and I might have to do a song or two, just a warning.” John smiled down at the elf.

“Oh yay, I get to listen to your voice for the third time in the past day,” Smiity said sarcastically, but in his mind, he actually didn’t mind it seeing as the man had a lovely voice. John only rolled his eyes in faux annoyance and pushed past the smaller man and into the tavern, holding the door open for his companion.

It was on the earlier side of the night but that didn’t mean that there wasn’t a crowd in the establishment. People were sitting around at the tables, drinking and talking amongst themselves, there were some people singing along to whatever song the bard that was currently on stage was performing. The whole place made a feeling of warmth spark in Smiity’s chest and as he looked around, he felt that he wanted to stay, but he knew deep down that he had to leave for the safety of the people, but for this one night, he can let go and enjoy this last bit of freedom that he has.

John stepped next to the elf and put a hand to his back to lead him to an empty table near the stage before pulling out the chair for Smiity to take a seat in.

“What a gentleman.” The elf says in a mock fancy voice, gratefully taking a seat in the chair. Kryoz walked over to the other side of the table and sat down in his respective seat, opening his mouth to say something before a big man came over and wrapped an arm around his shoulder, pulling him into a side hug that looked tight.

“Kryoz! Have you come back to serenade more people into your bedroom again?” The man said, letting out one of the most full bellied laughs the elf had ever heard. He let the lutist go before ruffling his hair. The man paused when he looked over to see the white haired elf across from the two, he looked confused, then he looked very excited. “Has someone finally been able to capture your heart? John why didn’t you tell me? This calls for a round on me for you two love birds!”

“Hey Anthony,” John said once this Anthony man stopped talking, his face red, Smiity was sure his face held the same complexion. “We’re not together, not like that. This is Smiity, he’s not from around here and we’re only here for one more night before me, Swagger, and Fitz have to take him home.” The lie fell easily from John’s lips and Smiity wondered for a second where he learned to do that.

“Well then, even if you two aren’t involved, I still think your last night here deserves a few drinks, I’ll get you started with a pint each, if that sounds good?” Anthony asked, looking between the two with his hands in the air. They both nod. “Great, I’ll be back with that soon.”

And with that, the tall man is on his way to grab the drinks that he promised.

“Can I ask why people think we’re...together?” The white-haired elf questioned, looking back at the man in front of him with a confused yet knowing face. He was quite sure that it had something to do with how John is normally around people.

“Well, people know me for my ability to be appealing to nearly everyone in the whole town and I may or may not use that to my advantage in certain situations.” The bard explained, talking with his hands.

“So what you’re saying is that you sleep around with practically everyone?” Smiity’s arms cross over his chest and he raises an eyebrow with a smirk on his face as he watches John freeze in his seat, a look of defeat crossing over his features.

“Listen—” He was cut off by two large cups being placed in front of them on the table.

“Here you are. Now, will you be performing tonight?” He inquired, raising an eyebrow at the man that had already grabbed his cup and taken a sip from it.

“I’d like to, but I don’t have my lute right now.” When Smiity heard this he had to look over the bard once, only just realizing that he had put down the instrument. He must’ve left it at his house when they were over there.

“Well I’m sure we have a lute somewhere in the back, I know you prefer to use your lute but you always manage to sound good no matter what you use.”

“Careful Jiggles, compliment me more and I might fall in love with you.” John leans back in his chair while looking up at the man who had leaned down onto his hands on the table.

“If that would keep you out of my customer’s pants then go ahead and fall.” They both chuckled lightly as Smiity sat there with an awkward smile on his face as he watched the two.

“I think I have a song or two that I can do.” John says after blowing out some air, and Anthony’s smile grew tenfold.

“Wonderful, you can go on after this guy is done with his set.” John nods at the man before him, said man turning away to go back to tending to other patrons and his actual work. After Anothony had left, John started to lean back in his chair making the front legs lift up and allowed his legs to be stretched out as much as possible without him falling.

“Now, I know what you’re thinking, and no, I do not sleep with everyone, it’s just that I’m known to flirt, usually I just walk people home or something.” Smiity raised an eyebrow at that, wondering if he was telling the truth or if he was just trying to get the elf to trust him more. He seemed to be sincere but Smiity was never good at reading people’s emotions.

“Maybe you’re the psychic between the two of us,” He said, taking a sip from his drink and referencing how John had said that he knew what Smiity was thinking, choosing to not comment on his skepticism on what the man said.

“Wouldn’t that be something,” John had leaned forward again, letting the front legs of his chair back to the ground before he reached to grab his own pint and gulp down some of it. He sat the drink back down on the table, his eyebrows furrowing together as he stared at a random place on the carved wood, he seemed to be glaring at the craftwork that was in front of him, maybe he knew the person who made it? “What exactly did you see? What did the man look like?” The question caught Smiity off guard, partially because the brunette had shown practically no interest in pressing the subject. Smiity stared for a second, wondering why the man had asked him, but after his eyes had looked over the human’s face and saw the way he had some anger and sorrow showing made him curious as to why he wanted to know. The elf’s mind also helpfully provided that this man has almost done nothing but help him thus far and that he should at least indulge him this once.

“Well, I didn’t get a really good look at his face, but he was missing an arm on his left side, it looked like it was replaced by some form of metal contraption that looked similar to a sword but wider, I guess. He was tall compared to the faerie that was there, maybe a bit shorter than you. That’s all I could really see.” John’s face grew to be more angry as his description, his disdain dripping from his eyes and the frown on his lips evident of how he felt about the person Smiity was describing.

“Demien, he’s next in line to be the leader of Blight, that bastard, I hate him.” The malice in his voice was evident as he spat the words.

“What did he do?”

“He tore my family apart in a way that it can never be put back together.” John’s gaze became more sad than before, he looked like a lost traveler who was separated from his group and doesn’t know how to get back to the life he used to live and love. Smiity reached out a hand and placed it on the other man’s hand, trying in a way to help him, but John only pulled his hand away, sighing before closing his eyes. For a second, Smiity could see a whole new person under all the different shades of anger and sadness, a more vulnerable version of the man he’s grown to know over the course of the day. Kryoz opened his eyes again and it seemed that his anger had disappeared, a look of something more friendly and warm taking its place. “I suppose you also know what something like that feels like.” His voice was soft and it made the white-haired elf feel like he wasn’t alone in this crazy series of events. It made him smile.

“Yeah, we’re both in this together now.” Smiity hoped his voice was reassuring enough to be a nice getaway from the chaos that they had both been thrown into within the past 24 hours. John smiled back and grabbed his drink, lifting it up in the air for Smiity to cheers him. Smiity did the same, knocking his drink against John’s before they both took a drink.

“So, do you only perform for a living?” Smith asked, trying to get to know the man before him, seen as he would be spending quite some time with him come the next few weeks or even months.

“Well, I had a bit of money saved up before I moved here, so that helped me get a house and all that stuff, but now I’m comfortable enough to be performing most nights while doing jobs around town for extra cash.” John explained, Smiity nodding along with his words, actually interested in learning about him.

“What kind of jobs?”

“Oh just a few labor things, paint a house, fix a roof, kill an animal that was eating the vegetables and plants, that kind of stuff,” He was talking with his hands, making gestures at certain words, but what caught Smiity off guard was how cool he was being when he said he had to kill an animal.

“And what do you do with the animal when it’s dead?” He never told John this, but he was somewhat of an animal lover himself, enjoying having some form of companion by his side, and it always pained him when one was killed, even if it would have been better for them.

“Well, I usually give it to the people that are paying me to kill it, let them do what they want, but sometimes they tell me to keep it, so I might eat it or sacrifice it.” John said, not really noticing the way Smiity had gotten a slight bit more uncomfortable with the conversation, he was too focused on his drink, but when he looked up and saw the sorrow on the elf’s face, he was quick to reassure. “If you were wondering, I use the most efficient method that ensures the least amount of pain for the animal and I always give away some of the meat to those who need it more than I do.”

“That’s very kind of you.” The two stare at each other for a second before John looks up to the stage, where the performer had walked off not too long ago, leaving the only sounds in the bar to be the loud talking and shouting amongst the patrons.

“I guess that’s my cue to get up there. See you when I’m done.” He winked at the white-haired elf, making him blush, before he stood up and took one last gulp of his drink and walked up to the stage, grabbing a lute from Anthony who was standing right next to it.

John sat down at the chair that had been set up for him and started to get the lute ready to play, tuning it to his liking, all while under Smiity’s careful gaze. He didn’t want to miss a thing. The man on stage took a deep breath and started to play the instrument.

_“I’m trying to fall asleep_  
_But your words are keeping me awake_  
_And I don’t know if I could fake_  
_My tiredness has grown_  
_And you still do not know_  
_That I’m going through this strife_  
_It feels like a butter knife inside my heart_  
_I’m begging you_

_I know you’re still in there_  
_And I know, I know that you still care_

_Cause I’m trying to make the best of a situation_  
_And I don’t think I’m doing it right but I know_  
_It’s only a limitation_  
_And it might not be what I like_  
_But it’s all I’ve got so I’ll give it a shot_  
_It’s all I’ve got so I’ll give it a shot_  
_Oh no”_

The way his voice sang the lyrics, how the pitch was deep and gravely, made a shiver up the elf’s spine. He listened with open ears as John continued to sing his heart out about a life that was once had. It was a nice song that sounded well with his vocals, and somehow Smiity could almost hear the harmony’s being sung at the same time, but that could have been his imagination. He couldn’t move his eyes away from the man on the stage, even if he wanted to, John’s performance was enrapturing and enthralling, it was something that Smiity had never seen before in his entire life. It was magical.

_“I’m swimming in the deep_  
_The water drags my feet down_  
_And I can’t seem to make a sound_  
_The water fills my lungs_  
_And I’m trying to overcome_  
_This thing that I’ve been put through_  
_And there’s no one I can look to_

_Oh I’m trying to make the best of a situation_  
_And I don’t think I’m doing it right but I know_  
_It’s only a limitation_  
_And it might not be what I like_  
_But it’s all I’ve got so I’ll give it a shot_  
_It’s all I’ve got so I’ll give it a shot_  
_Oh_

_Life has been so hard_  
_For the past few years_  
_But I’m starting to make a comeback_  
_Yeah I’m drying off my tears_

_Oh I’m trying to make the best of a situation_  
_And I don’t think I’m doing it right but I know_  
_It’s only a limitation_  
_And it might not be what I like_  
_But it’s all I’ve got so I’ll give it a shot_  
_It’s all I’ve got so I’ll give it a shot_  
_Oh yeah"_

As the closing notes are played, the whole tavern is dead quiet, only to be engulfed in a chorus of cheers. Smiity was stunned into silence. He didn’t know that John could put such emotion into a single song. The song was beautiful, both the music and the lyrics.

John stood up and took a bow, placing the lute down onto the floor and stepping down from the stage. He took his seat across from Smiity, who just stared at him like he had just sprouted wings and flown away. John only smiled at him.

“And are you gonna tell me where the fuck that came from or are we just gonna ignore the fact that you have people crying?” Smiity asked once he regained his composure, gesturing to the people around them that had tears in their eyes, some of them even full on bawling.

“That happens a lot, I’m used to it.” John shrugs off the question nonchalantly, he takes another swig from his beer.

“I didn’t think a song like that could elicit such a reaction, but here we are.” Smiity looks around again, still shocked at the amount of people still crying. He also grabs his drink and takes a drink hesitantly. He knew the song was good, but was it that good that it deserved a room of people to start crying? “Did you use magic?” John paused for a moment, looking up at the elf across from him and smirking.

“Aw come on, Smit, you don’t trust me to not use magic when I’m performing?” The bard’s face showed that he was feigning his hurt feelings yet again. The white-haired elf only raised an eyebrow at him with a look of disbelief. “Ok, maybe I used some magic, but it’s my last performance here for the time being and I wanted to make it memorable.”

“Wait, what do you mean ‘last performance’?” A voice sounds next to them and they turn to see Anthony standing with a look of confusion on his face.

“I already told you that we were going on a trip with Smiity.”

“Oh yeah, I guess it didn’t register in my mind yet that you won’t be here for some time, it’ll be a bit quiet around here,” He sounded sad, but he perked up a bit a few seconds later. “You think I could get Nogla to perform here?”

“You’d have to really try,” John laughs and Smiity stares at them with confusion, he had no idea who Nogla was but it sounded like the person was a good singer or performer.

“I’ll ask him later, for tonight, because it’s your last, all the drinks are on me, don’t worry about paying.”

“Thanks, but we really shouldn’t be hungover tomorrow, it wouldn’t be good for the trip to start on a bad day,” John explained. Smiity only took another sip of his drink, he had never really had any sort of alcohol, his family being mostly against anything that would “impure” their blood, so this is one of the first times he had ever had beer, meaning he was already slightly tipsy.

“Well then maybe I should get you some things to help you on this journey of yours.” John looks up to the man who had quieted his voice to a whisper so only the two men would hear him.

“Really? You think we’ll need it?” John asked quietly, his eyes slightly widened.

“Knowing you, I know you’ll need it.” Anthony then turned and walked back to the bar, leaving an exasperated John all alone with a giggling Smiity. After a few seconds John joined the elf in his laughter.

“You know what, fair,” John said in between laughs.

“Can I ask what the ‘things’ are?” Smiity asked, genuinely curious about what the two were talking about.

“I’ll tell you when we get back to my house,” John says, avoiding the question easily.

“Ok, well then who’s this Nogla guy you were talking about?”

“Hm? Oh, he’s a friend, of ours, the guy has a voice like no other, people say he’s half siren even, but he doesn’t even know who his mom was and his dad refuses to tell him.” John explained as the next performer got up on stage. Smiity nodded along to what John was saying, taking in the information like a sponge. “Are you good? You’re bouncing your leg like crazy.”

Only then did Smiity realize that he had been tapping his foot on the ground. He stopped and it immediately felt odd, not moving.

“Sorry, I didn’t notice,” He smiled.

“You nervous for tomorrow?” John asked, and his words nearly escaping Smiity, he didn’t realize but he started to focus on not bouncing his leg. It was harder for him to focus on the man in front of him for some reason.

“No, not really, I just bounce my leg sometimes, I don’t realize that I do it sometimes.” John nodded, and turned his attention to the person on stage. Smiity also tried to tune into the song that was playing throughout the bar, but all he could seem to think about was the next day. He had told John that he wasn’t nervous, now that wasn’t a complete lie, but now that it was brought up, he realized that he was getting anxious about the whole ordeal. He hadn’t been prepared for something like this, how could anyone be prepared for something like this?

It’s like the gods were against him.

Suddenly he’s pulled out of his thoughts by the loud sound of someone yelling profanities at someone else, most likely the beginning of a fight. The elf turns to look at the scene behind him. It seemed that someone had pissed off the biggest looking tiefling in the whole bar and was now being held up by their neck by said tiefling.

“I think we should go now.” Smiity says to the bard who had just finished his drink and was smiling while watching the fight play out.

“Aw, now? But it was just getting good.” John pouts, but when he sees the look on Smiity’s face, noticing the admonishing look being thrown his way, he sighs and nods, standing up to head out of the bar. Smiity also stands and starts to follow the man out to the street outside of the tavern, the only thing lighting their path being the moon, who was looking down at all them and guiding the way of millions upon millions. Smiity looked up to her and smiled, taking in a breath of fresh air, glad to be out in the cool night.

“We should probably head back to my place now.” John said quietly, gently bringing Smiity out of his trance and back into reality.

“Yeah, I guess we should.” And with that, they make their way back to John’s small house in silence, neither one of them wanting to break the peace that they had found themselves in. It was nice. It was calm.

When they arrived at the house, it was quiet. John showed Smiity to his room, it was technically John’s room but the man let him stay there for the night seeing as he was the guest. The two were both trying to be a quiet as they could, not wanting to disturb the peaceful ambiance that surrounded them. Smiity thanked John for helping him and lending him a room, John only smiled and turned to leave the room.

Once he was gone, Smiity started to change into more comfortable clothes, getting onto the bed and lying down only to stare up at the ceiling. The only light that was illuminating the room was coming from the moon outside of the windows, the soft beams streaming onto the bed and floor. Smiity smiled and closed his eyes, finally drifting off into a dreamless sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's been a while, but I felt unmotivated to get this done
> 
> sorry


End file.
